Page 45 of Cinderella's One-Night Baby

What a horrible way to describe something so beautiful.

But that was Andrés, she accepted painfully. He did not do emotional commitment to anyone that was not blood.

It was nothing she didn’t already know. More importantly, it was nothing she didn’t want for herself. When their sexual relationship ended, her heart would be perfectly intact.

For all her internal reasoning, it took effort to make her voice temperate. ‘I had both my parents for the first ten years of my life and I will be for ever grateful for that, but if they’d never lived together, that would have been my normal and I wouldn’t have known any different.’

‘I want to be there, Gabrielle. Why do you think I’ve been so intentnotto have children? It’s because I’ve always known how I would feel. The thought of my child growing up under a different roof to me and living with a man who is not me is intolerable.’

‘I can put your mind at rest on the second part. I have no intention of living with anyone.’

His black eyes glimmered. ‘I’m notanyone. I’m the father of your child.’

‘And you’re not proposing that I live with you in that way, but I don’t imagine many other people will understand it. What do you think will happen if Lucas’s father learns about us?’

‘I can protect you both from that man.’

‘Maybe you can, I don’t know, but either way, this...’ She scrambled to put her thoughts into order. ‘It’s a good, logical idea.’ She had to admit that. In many ways it was the perfect solution for two people who shied away from real relationships. ‘But I have Lucas to think of, and not just because of his father. He’s used to it being just the two of us. He needs to get to know you, and you need to get to know him, and until I know he’s comfortable with you I can’t even entertain the idea of us sharing a house.’

‘I will get to know him and work on building his trust.’

‘That’s great but there has to be boundaries. He can’t know that you and I are lovers, and if all goes well with the two of you and we get that house you talked about, you can’t bring women to it. That part of your life will have to be separate. I will not have him confused or upset for anything. He’s been through too much as it is.’

He raised his wine glass. ‘I can accept those terms.’

Gabrielle clinked her grape Ramune to it, managing a tight smile, proud that she’d been able to give her conditions without her voice cracking.

This really was the perfect solution. Other than Lucas’s emotional security, there was not one good reason to dislike it, not when it gave them both everything they needed and, more importantly, provided the children with the stability that all children deserved, and she couldn’t understand why her stomach was twisting so tightly.

Andrés thanked the waitress who’d appeared to clear their table in preparation for the next course, and drank the last of his wine.

Gabrielle had agreed—in a roundabout way—to his eminently sensible proposal. Her only reservations were also eminently sensible. He should be delighted, thrilled that he’d judged correctly that the headiness of the chemistry they currently shared wouldn’t cloud her thinking and compel her to ask for more than he wanted to give.

He should be feeling euphoric that they’d organised everything so neatly, not feeling flattened.

Gabrielle had assumed Andrés’s Spanish home would be palatial. She’d severely underestimated. There, in the heart of the city, set back off a wide road with wide pavements lined with orange trees, a beautiful three storey townhouse that dominated the entire area.

If she was overawed, she thought Lucas’s eyes were at risk of popping out.

Where the architecture of the house had a gothic feel, the interior was sleek and modern with distinctive Spanish touches. Three living rooms.Three.Two dining rooms.Two dining rooms!A study that also doubled as a library. A games room. A cinema room. All except the latter with high, frescoed ceilings and late afternoon light pouring in at all angles. Each bedroom had its own adjoining bathroom.

Then there was the grounds, a perfect oasis of beauty surrounded by a perimeter of huge trees that gave the illusion of being in the middle of nowhere.

They toured it all, Lucas clutching her hand, even more intimidated than he’d been when they’d spent the day in Andrés’s apartment last weekend.

For a month they’d been working on getting Lucas comfortable with Andrés. This hadn’t been helped by the amount of travelling Andrés had done, their time together coming in fits and spurts. His intention was that by the time the baby came, he’d have moved his head offices to wherever she decided they would set up home together and be under the same roof as her at least eighty per cent of the time. One place he’d asked her to consider was Seville, the city he called home, and so she’d agreed to bring Lucas for a weekend there. Andrés had cleared his entire diary for them, and invited his family over, including his godsons in the hope that seeing other children comfortable with him would help Lucas learn he wasn’t a bogeyman.

But it wasn’t just the travelling that had stopped Andrés and Lucas from bonding. The simple truth was Lucas distrusted him, and no amount of toys as bribes or rides in a helicopter could get him to view Andrés with anything less than suspicion. As a result, Gabrielle had refused Andrés’s offer of renting a home for them until she deemed the time right for him to buy them the house he’d spoken of. His presence in their life had unsettled her little boy enough without ripping him from the cosy apartment that had been their home his entire life, the deposit for it paid with the last of The Bastard’s hush money.

Her brother, spectacularly useless at emotional stuff but excellent with practical stuff, had insisted on paying the small mortgage until she’d been in a position to go out to work; his way of playing his part, and she intended to offer it to him when she moved out.

She still couldn’t get over having the luxury of being able to let it out rent free. Without her knowledge, Andrés had paid the mortgage off. For the first time in her life, Gabrielle had money to burn, all thanks to Andrés and the money he’d deposited into her account, also without her knowledge. She’d begged her colleagues’ forgiveness for skipping to Japan and parted on good terms with them, her mother had accepted the situation with a stoic grace, and for the first time in almost five years, the future she’d once wanted for herself looked possible. More than once, Andrés had mentioned her doing the degree she’d always wanted.

Really, she should be buzzing that her future was brighter than she’d ever imagined it could be, but for a reason she couldn’t discern, a kernel of fear still beat in her chest.

She would wait until the baby had been born before making any decisions about her personal future. As it was, there was too much in her head to think beyond the next day. Everything in her head was wrapped around Andrés and it frightened her how completely he occupied her mind. It frightened her even more how much she missed him when he was away.

Those nights in Japan had spoilt her because she’d never known nights could be lonely.

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